Tuesday, December 25

On the planet Messaline the Hath - fish monsters that communicate through bubbles - and humans have been at war forever trying to find "the source of life". Time is measured on Messaline by counting the generations of the dead. Martha is kidnapped and the Doctor meets the most important woman of his life. But as General Cobb threatens genocide, the Time Lord faces an even greater battle – can he find peace with his own child?

So, from the ending of the Poison Sky, we see some strange Time Lordy stuff going on with the Doctor's hand, and the Doctor, Donna and Martha are whisked away to places unknown.

Okay, we know where they go: Messaline, but it sounded more dramatic not to say that.

And from the looks of it, they arrive, and are straight away thrust into copious amounts of trouble!

Or, maybe they just run into Klein and his weary band of soldiers (that include Jenny), who fighting against the Hath for some reason or other.

Strange mark on his hand...

But before anything can happen (or anything can be revealed) the Hath turn up and start shooting at things - generally people really.

They don't speak but "blow bubbles through a tube in their face", and appear to live in this dark, basement like surroundings known as the "Hathling" encampment

And as we can see, they take Martha away and Jenny blows them up... clever.

The Doctor: Why did you do that?Jenny: They were trying to kill us!The Doctor: But they've got my friendJenny: Collateral damage. At least you've still got her. He lost both of his men. I'd say you came out ahead.

So after that, Klein and Jenny take the Doctor and Donna back to their camp and explain all about what's going on - War and whatnot.

And then finally, I think its revealed that Jenny is indeed the Doctor's daughter. And she's the real thing, but not created in the normal way.

"The Doctor...manages to go from 'carefree bachelor' to 'dad' in a matter of nanoseconds, after he puts his hand in a machine that spits out grown-up offspring."

"Jenny is the product of singular progenation - meaning that the Doctor is both mother and father of his new dependent."

And apparently the Doctor is mostly shocked by Jenny's sudden appearance, and in facts spends most of the episode in denial about it.

But at least Donna's there to try and make it better!Donna: I know that look. See it a lot round our way. Blokes with pushchairs and frowns. You've got Dad-Shock! Sudden, unexpected fatherhood. Takes a lot getting used to...

So, the Hath have tottered off and kidnapped Martha, taking her away to their encampment where she gets to live up to her doctor role and fix one of their dislocated shoulders:

And also, I get the impression that maybe the Hath are nice? Well, anyway, at some point, Martha slips and rolls down a hill to land in some mud/quicksand type stuff at the bottom. A Hath clambers down after her and appears to be about to try and pull her outWhile this is going on, the Doctor and Donna to try and save Martha, the planet, and do something with Jenny.

A cage! My, my, she does get around!

"Georgia Moffett is superb as Jenny, The Doctor's daughter. Like him, she has astonishing abilities. And she challenges him at every turn, making him think about things that he's never considered before. And as the story goes on, they continue to learn from each other."

The episode was designed to "change the Doctor" in a way that will have "a real impact on him" and that in terms of the series continuity the episode will have a "lasting impact". So I wonder what will happen to his dear daughter?

"She's my daughter.""Drop your *******.""Hello dad.""Every child of the ******* is born with **** *********.""All ******** is regulated. We're at war.""Now then, I'm Doctor Martha Jones. Who the hell are you?""You're an ****, that's all. A **** L*** is so much more."

Set Reports

1st Report of FilmingCast & crew were also seen filming when there were stunt doubles and a couple of aliens. They shot a couple of scenes on the tips in Cefn Cribbwr, but only Martha was there no Doctor or Donna.

So maybe a scene of when she's captured OR, while she is being held hostage.

2nd Report of FilmingOnly a wee little one with the Doctor, Donna and Martha on a street. Considering they go to an alien planet, we can assume that this is either the beginning or the end of the episode.

(Thanks to clashtafari for the images)

And a big thanks to Cameron and his fantastic site StuffOnTV for some (If not most!) of the images. I am indebted to you!

well i don't know if it would be the doctor's daughter, because he never quite said he had one, did he? he had a son and a granddaughter, but he never said he had a daughter of his own. could be romana or someone else altogether, you never know with this stuff

would the daughter be a time lady?Would she bear any resemblence to the doctor and if so which one? Shes being played by georgia moffet so does she look anything like the fifth doctor -her real life dad? cus that would make sense, you know hire someone who looks like the doctor to play his daughter, she would look like the fifth daughter.

hang on. if you havn't got the internet, cant be arsed to read magazines and have no friends who like doctor who, and you are a doctor who fan, isn't the titel a bit obvious. i mean, any tital with "dalek" in it, it's obviously gonna have daleks, and yet they come in like half way through the episode. but i'll tell you this, georgia moffet is. well, GORGOUS! (not being GAY here but David Tennant doesn't look too bad either)

if this is susans mother then how did she get to gallifrey, maybe the master is manipulating things from behind the scenes and ordered her creation with the doctors dna then took her to gallifrey to hav susan then took her bac here, just a guess and it would be a confusing story so maybe not, but the doctor is ment to be surprised by her appearance so he wouldnt know her so she cant be susans mother, the doctor did mention he was a father once, in series 2 he sadi to rose in the episode fear her, maybe he had a relationship with sum women she had a daughter then she had susan and the doctor decided to leave gallifrey cause the relationship caused problems and susan sneaked on the tardis with the doctor, now that sounds good, maybe summit like that has been considered, i wonder

Actually, Susan wasn't his granddaughter by blood, as far as I've read. I read that yes, she was a Time Lady, but he adopted her. And, due to the age differences between the actors, the writers had decided to say he adopted her as his granddaughter rather than his daughter.

I know that all we can do until the episode is speculate, but questions have already sort of been raised in previous episodes. Like, in Fear Her, (if Wikiquote is right, as my memory is terrible):

Rose: That's easy for you to say! You don't have children! The Doctor: I was a dad once. Rose: What you just say?

I could have sworn there was more, but I can't quite find them. It doesn't exactly explain everything, being sort of throwaway comments by the Doctor, but one thing I love about RTD, things that seem like just throwaway comments at first end up meaning a lot in the end. :)

The daleks tried to clone the 5th doctor at one stage and almost completed it (they cloned his two assistants). Ample DNA could have been obtained then, and a daughter created, leaving her time between the 5th and 10th doctors to grow up

I dunno, I just can't think of this being a DNA thing, because the Doctor's DNA, unless Time Lords are hermaphroditic at birth (oh god that was a bad mental image), I still think the child would be male. Then again...do Time Lords stay one gender through their regenerations. I'd think so, considering every Time Lord of Lady we've seen regenerate has regenerated to the same gender, haven't we? I've missed a bit of the classics.

And c'mon, 900+ years is a long time to not get even a little hanky panky at some point. Besides, Gallifrey's only recently gone, relatively speaking. Then again, the Doctor's supposed to be the last of the Time Lords, and YET then again...he thought that last season too, and then the Master popped up.

I could contradict and argue with myself over this all night long, I think. Oy...

^^Well, there was the reference in "Poison Sky"... anyone else notice a lot of references to past episodes? The gas masks, the Valiant turning up, all that?

Can't think of any more at the moment (although I thought there were some more). Maybe the past is spilling through somehow (The Medusa Cascade?) slowly, and it'll all come to a head in the last few episodes...

Not suggesting it's in any way connected to the Doctor, but is anyone else wondering if the thing that Donna's grandfather and her agree 'not to tell her mum' in their chat near the end of the episode is that Donna's pregnant?

If they're trying to find the "source of life", what if they find it, and this is the episode intended to allow the Doctor to continue regenerating past his thirteenth.

It could be that Jenny is the key to this - I'm not sure how they would script it, but it's better to deal with the regenerations issue now, before it's foisted on them in the future (three more Ecclestons would be disasterous!).

I have devised a thinking programme: You see, I think I know why exactly the hand-in-the-jar was bubbling. Well, the hand-in-the-jar is a DOCTOR detector. It detects the DOCTOR'S genes. And since Jenny is the DOCTOR'S daughter, she has the DOCTOR'S genes. Therefore, the hand was bubbling because it detected Jenny who contains the DOCTOR'S genes. Simple...

I have to applaud your enthusiams 'Anonymous'! But yea, RTD has said that somethingfrom every episode will be brought forward to the finale so considering the supposed Dalek mutation rumour for 12/13 i think the DNA bit is probably true. But the Doctor seemed to know he had a daughter in the trailer so i think it may also be to do with Susan? Either that or he and Rose were indeed v. close! :) Also could be backing up the "I was a dad once"? Intriguing....

just a point- in doomsday when the doctor was all teary eyed then he automaticly thought rose was pregnant, doesn't that strike you as suspicious? she was on her own with him all that time and now she might be pregnant? i know it was jackie, but the doctors reaction...suuusssppiiiccciooouuss.

Hey, if you go to http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/prod_lrg_images/104/204191104.jpgthen you'll see a picture of a book called "The Doctors Daughter" Guess What? It's by Donna MacQuigg! Cowinky -Dink? OR MORE?

I REALLY don't think Donna and her gramps were talking about Donna being pregnant. I think they were keeping it from her mother what Donna had to go through with the Sontarans.

And I also REALLY doubt that Jenny has anything to do with Madame du Pompadour, because the Doctor would be very careful not to alter that timeline, and I think knocking up the King's mistress might just do that.

Thsi si just a theory but. When som1 with time lord dna has a sudden burst of an emotion (Like anger, Fear, etc) It gives off a kind of energy that draws the Tardis to it. Also i think the hand is connected to the tardis, so that might be another reason

What I'm surprised nobody's talked about is the obvious connection between Jenny and Rose, both in the affinity for gymnastics as well as appearance. This is emphasized later, when General Cobb, I believe it was, speaking of their religion stated "She breathed life..." a possible reference to the Bad Wolf entity, and later upon resurrection exhales what strikingly resembles energy from the time vortex.

This is all highlighted, and subsequently tied into the previous 2 series' with the Doctor's mention of the word paradox.

I think Rose's granting of Jack's immortality is probably the smallest of the things she did that day. In my opinion it's looking more and more as though we are seeing the same literal manifestation of "I want you safe", as though Rose/the bad wolf entity has placed both herself and The Doctor in a predestination paradox, keeping him safe and leading them toward...a fantastic series finale.

I don't know if anyone's said this already, theres so many comments to search through.

But the 'Strange Mark' on that guys hand and the Doctors hand after that strange machine took a tissue sample is the same mark from the 9th doctor episode:The Empty ChildThe Gas mask zombies had the same mark on their hand.

Yeah.But in the Adipose episode, Partners in Crime Donna sees Rose and doesn't know, then Rose walks off. Then in the first Sontaran episode, I forget the title, Rose is on the screen, I thought at the time that Rose had just been the last one to contact The Doctor on that screen, but now I think that yes indeed, she was trying to contact The Doctor.

But if indeed there is a law about how you have to die, Jenny would not have known, and do you think that The Master, a known evil phycopath, would have obeyed it???

And on the subject of the marks, that was a very good pick up by the way, the scene/backdrop is the sam as the Shakespear one with the witches.

And Jenny is an anomoly, and technically blonde hair is a recessive gene, so that doesn't mean that she can't be The Doctor's child.

And with Forest Of The Dead, hav you ever wondered how he opens the tardis by snapping his fingers, I have a theory, his right hand is connected to the Tardis, and that is the hand he snaps his fingers with.

Don't know whether anyone was aware cause have not read everything but diploid and haploid are related to wasps and bees and probably other insects where when a queen mates if she decides not to furtilise it becomes a male bee and if she decides to furtilise it can become a female or even a future queen of another colony. I always thought bees could only sting once in comparison to wasps but aparently it is honey bees as opposed to bumble bees and other bees that this happens to. British bees died out shortly after world war one and replaced by middle and south american bees. Some people on the internet suggest it was world war one but other sources say it was a strain of spanish flu or tyfoid.

I love Jenny/ Georgia Moffat. Have you seen her son, Ty. He is the cutest little thing ever. She is currently dating David T and Ty like him alot. I wish that they would get married or something, although the 14 year age gap. Who cares, the Doctor is still a child lol!

the y shaped mark obviously refers to him being a guy, as in Y-gene. notice all the other guys had it. jenny wouldn't be anyone's daughter as in the ep it says she was produced through a re-combination of the Doctor's genes. u people come up with some weird ideas!!!! it is possible she could be Susan's mum though, because she might have ascended to the position Susan's mum supposedly had, then she and her husband may have died before the Doctor met Susan, therefore her being an orphan when her met her. that way he could be Susan's grandfather biologically as well without either of the knowing it. anyone ever considered that? because Susan was supposedly an orphan when the Doctor met her and adopted her, so that could fit.